Maple Revelations
by BlinkMeJacko
Summary: Stuart Blink, a young islander whishing to follow in his fathers footsteps. He leaves home for kerning city seeking new adventures and finding new friends. But a recurring dream constantly plagues his mind and clouds his future.


**Chapter One : A New Beginning**

"Dammit man, where is she ?!" the young chief bandit muttered to himself. "I have to find her, and fast". He peered around the corner from where he had hidden himself. Up on his raised section of the Ant Tunnel Dungeons, he had a wide view of the surrounding area; a large room that seemed to glow an unnatural, almost, eerie blue. This light being emitted from what seemed to be every pillar of the ancient room allowed for decent viewing conditions over every inch of the room. "There !" he said to himself, almost falling from his perch as he craned to make sure of what he saw.

His eyes had not lied to him, there she was, kneeling in the centre of the room, a relative dot from where the surveying chief bandit was looking down upon her. Adorned in a Blue Oriental Fury Gown with her chocolate coloured hair draped down in front of her face and over her shoulders. "..." he tried to scream out to her, but the name eluded his tongue and words failed to come forth. Then just as he was about to jump down, he saw another figure come in from the left of the room...

The man who strode in from the left had a very evil aura about him, he was completely covered in dark armour, what seemed to be Pirate Wear, yet his head was almost completely covered but for a wide slit through which his eyes were beaming straight at the stricken magistress. On his right hand there was a pristine Casters claw, two Ilbi stars dangerously protruding between his fingers. This terrible man seemed very familiar to the bandit, who was franticly thinking of the best way to stop this man and get the magistress to safety. But before he had time to even contemplate any of his plans, the hermit raised his head and began to speak. . . .

"I know you're here boy !!" the hermits voiced boomed and echoed in the room as if he were a god speaking to his lowly subjects. "I know this woman means a lot to you, your meddling in my affairs is greatly tiring me, I suggest you come here before something terrible happens to her !" A look of sheer horror became etched across the bandits face as the thought went through his head; how the hell can he tell I'm here, I have to focus 100 to sense someone that well, and he sure as hell isn't trying very hard. . . "You had better move it boy ! I'm giving you one last chance before I finish her off, or does she not mean as much to you as I've been lead to believe". "Very well" and with that the hermit flung the 2 ilbis at magistress, who made no attempt to move out of the way.

"Sh..." he never got chance to finish his sentence as he found himself jumping from his perched hiding place, two steely stars protruding from the newly equipped green Scarab claw on his left hand. With an almighty heave the now hovering bandit flung the steelies at a spot just in front the paralysed magistress. The next few seconds seemed to take an entire age, as the ilbis hurtled towards her head and chest, and the two steely stars were racing to meet them. Just as the sets of stars and knives were about to cross paths, everything went completely black. . . . . . . ."

"Aghhh !". The young Maple Islander, Stuart Blink woke with a start, soaking wet in a cold sweat. "Fuck. . .ow. . ." it was then he regretted opening his eyes at the beautiful sunrise had just nearly blinded the young boy. "Why do I keep having this damned dream ?" he asked himself, thoroughly confused. "I don't even know who that girl is ! Why was I saving her ?!" he yelled, rubbing his eyes clear of the sun painful damage. This had been what felt like the one thousandth time he had this dream, which each and every time ended at the same point with the same important things missing. "I'm not to bothered about it, but it annoys the hell out of me when I don't know things" Stuart said to himself in frustration. "Time for my last day of training though, cant think about it now !" he said excitedly while pulling on his Blue White Stripe shirt.

Once he had secured his leather sandals tightly to his feet Stuart strode over the the desk that his mother had gotten him to do homework on, although as clever as he was, Stuart never did any homework, "never saw the point in it" he'd say to his mum when she asked where his work was. Instead however there was a dark leather pouch sitting on the top of the desk, its strapping dangling over the edge. Stuart took up the pouch and opened it to check its contents were in order, and to his satisfaction, they were. Strapping the pouch loosely around his waist and then closing its top, he headed downstairs where he was greeted by the smell of toast and his mothers bad singing.

"Morning son" she said, in her usual upbeat manner. "I heard you scream, did you have that silly nightmare again ?" "Mum, I'm a bit old for nightmares now, it's just a dream." he retorted. "I'd better go, those monsters wont kill themselves now will they". "Oh, son. . .please eat something before you go, its not good to fight on an empty stomach". "Yeah yeah mum" he mumbled through a mouthful of toast. "Ow ! What the hell was that for ?!" he raged as he rubbed the back of his head. "I also heard you swear, you know better than that my boy, and don't talk with your mouth full ! that's just as bad !" Stuart rolled his eyes at this because same as always with his mother, she went from worrying about him to correcting him in the blink of an eye, "maybe that's why our last name is Blink" he thought to himself, slightly amused. "Okay ! Bye mum, I'll be back by lunch time". By. . ." his mother never got chance to say good bye, and as she looked out at the window she could see her only son running off into the distance at full speed. "Do be careful my dearest son. . ." she whispered to herself.

"How is maths raising your intelligence ?!" the young magician screamed at his tutor. Joseph Esper had never really liked mathematics, especially when it seemed pointless to him, much as it did right now. "All we do is simple stuff anyway ! Adding things up is hardly gonna help us in the long run now is it !" he boomed, rather loudly considering he was only a small boy aged about eight years old. "Well, it beats learning like those block headed warriors we met last week in the Slime Tree" giggled his female friend. Tanya Mars was her name, smarter than Joe, which wasn't exactly hard for anyone so long as they weren't a warrior who were notoriously known for their lack of grey matter. "Hehe yeah, we should have told them to stop blocking the slimes attacks with their faces." Joe said, beginning to laugh almost maniacally.

"Excuse me children ! You are supposed to be studying, not laughing ! Here. ." the budding magicians tutor, Mr.Jackson handed both Joe and Tanya a piece of parchment. "Maybe this will remove that grin of yours master Esper." Joe and Tanya both looking puzzled took the parchment from their tutor and looked at what was written on the front. They both cast a disgusted look at Mr. Jackson as in turn they noticed they had been given yet more mathematics work to complete. " I shall be back within the hour, you had both better have all fifty of those times tables completed and correct by the time I return, if you complete the task, as you both should, having the time to laugh and all, you should study the first job equations from the books on the shelf behind you. They will be useful to you when you graduate from this academy." With that Mr.Jackson left the to soon to be magicians to their own devices and headed out of the room and down the corridor.

"Lets get out of here Tan" Joe whispered.

"Err, why ? We'll get it in the neck if these aren't done when he gets back here" she said back, pointing nervously at the parchment sitting in front of them.

"Oh come on !" Joe retorted "You were moaning just as much as me right now weren't you ? Lets go hang at the Slime Tree, find us some warriors to ridicule again !" Joe's mean streak was showing.

"But, what about this Joe. . ." Tanya said, again pointing nervously at the parchment as if it had done her harm.

"We'll just make something up ! Like. . . We heard a scream or. . .Lassie came and made us follow her there ! Anything is better than sitting in here doing lame maths !!" his voice had gradually got louder, clearly showing his frustration at his friends lack of enthusiasm for his plan.

Leaving Tanya to dwell on the idea, Joe got up from his seat and crept over to the door on the left side of the room. Turning the door knob very slowly, so as to make a lot of noise, he pulled the door open and took a peek into the corridor. "Come on, coast is clear Tan" Joe called back. "Fine ! Fine !" Tan ranted. "But if we get caught I'm blaming you for this Joey !" she said sternly. "Dammit Tan we won't get caught ! And don't call me Joey. . . I'm not your pet you know !" he said back, as he made a dash down the corridor to the exit. "No you're just an idiot kid" Tan retorted, following quickly after her friend, out the doors and off to the Slime Tree.

"Hiyaaaaaa" screamed the young boy, as another Orange Mushroom fell to a vicious roundhouse kick he delivered to its side. It hit the ground with a moan and then went limp. A second came at him from his left hand side, but just seeing it's incoming barrage in time he swung his sword violently into its midriff, falling grotesquely to the floor a second Mushroom had been defeated by this young islander. But much to his dismay, it seemed the young boy had angered a nest in the area. Clearly enraged by his presence the Mushrooms must have been alerted by their fallen comrades groans. Now surrounded by at least 15 Orange Mushroom our young warrior didn't much fancy his chances, but in a show of pure defiance he said firmly "Come on then ! If you think you can take me, just try !" With that said, the Mushroom horde grew even more infuriated and initiated their attack.

The seemingly biggest of the Mushrooms charged in from the front for a cap first ramming attack, the young warrior raised his sword to defend against it, but took a heavy hit from behind as another Mushroom had sneak attacked him. Now off balance the warrior was unable to defend against the frontal attack and took another harsh hit to the chest which knocked him off his feet and his sword out of his hands. The wind knocked out of him the islander could hardly move. He struggled onto his knees but couldn't hold himself up straight and fell forward on to all fours. Then out of nowhere he heard a shout from the right.

"Get down !" But rather than heeding the advice he looked to where it was coming from. A silly mistake to make as a metallic blur flew past his eyes and gashed his left cheek. "Ahhh !" he squealed clutching his cheek, then he heard a thud to his left. Spinning round he saw an Orange Mushroom lying motionless on the ground, impaled between the eyes by a Steely throwing knife. "What the. . .Steelies on Maple Island ?" he said, totally baffled. "I said get down !" the voice came over again, this time he listened and ducked down, hugging the ground so as not to get hit again. Several more shining blurs came from multiple directions in the forest every few seconds, he could only catch where they were heading and when he looked, each time he saw a Mushroom lying motionless with a knife protruding from somewhere on its body. Seeing at least five of their comrades cut down by an invisible force, the Orange Mushrooms began to flee the scene, not wanting to meet the same unfortunate fate. The last one to run however was the larger one, who stopped just on the edge of the clearing and gave a quick glance back to the warrior, then with a look of disgust he turned a fled, following the others.

"Yeah ! Damn right ! You had better run !" Roared the anonymous islander, now strong enough to kneel without falling. Hearing another noise behind him he swung round and what met him he didn't expect to see. There stood another boy, only a year, maybe two older than he. He was adorned in Leather Sandals, gradually working his way up he also saw Blue Jean shorts and a Blue White stripe shirt. It was none other than Stuart Blink, a local boy he knew of, but had never actually met; until now, and not only had he met him, he had also been saved by him. Almost oblivious to the his fellow islanders presence Stuart was busy scanning the area for other foes, steely in hand ready, just in case something foolish enough to try attacked him.

"I'm S..."

"An idiot" Stuart butted in rudely.

"You're lucky I come here to train, otherwise you would be dead. You're wounded. . .My aim is a bit off today."

"I'm fine" he replied. "Although an apology would be nice" he said with a sarcastic air.

"I'm sure" replied Stuart, even more sarcastically.

Then Stuart noticed something he hadn't seen before. This mysterious Islander he had just saved had been wounded, by none other than himself and yet, the wound, was almost completely closed over and even beginning to scar at the edges. It seemed this young boys body was able to heal rapidly, several time faster than any normal humans.

"It seems my training is done for the day, as both you and I have killed or scared off the prey that usually lurks here. I suggest you go home. I shall do the same." He said nonchalantly.

"But, you didn't get my name, it's Scott Weston." Much to Scott's disappointment however, Stuart had already left, not learning the name of the boy he had just saved.


End file.
